- ✓Orient and size an open-sided house for the Ivorian climate
- ✓Understand natural ventilation and the role of the curtains
- ✓Calculate how many birds a house can really hold
Orientation: the sun must not get in
An open-sided house is built along an east–west axis: the long sides face north and south. That way, the morning and evening sun strikes the small gable ends, and the long mesh sides stay in the shade of the roof. A house placed the other way gets the sun full on its open sides: the birds crowd into the shade, drink less, eat less and suffocate in the hot hours.
The roof overhang must protect the sides: allow at least one metre of overhang, more if you can. An uninsulated metal-sheet roof gets very hot: a height of 2.5 to 3.5 m at the side walls keeps that heat away from the birds and helps the air circulate. Pitched roofs with a ridge opening (ridge vent) let the hot air out.
Natural ventilation and the curtains
In an open-sided house, it is the wind that ventilates. For it to pass through, the house must not be too wide: 10 to 12 metres at most. Beyond that, the air in the middle is no longer renewed, ammonia and humidity build up, and respiratory diseases set in. Two houses 10 m wide are better than a single one 20 m wide.
The sides are closed by a low wall of 30 to 50 cm (it protects against driving rain and predators) topped with fine wire mesh (wild birds, rodents). Roll-up curtains complete the set-up: lowered at night and during brooding to keep the heat in, raised during the day to let the air through, half-way during the rains. The technician who works the curtains several times a day is doing real husbandry work.
Leave space around the house: at least 10 to 15 m without dense trees or other buildings along the long sides, so that the wind can reach it. If you have several houses, space them at least 15 to 20 m apart, and place them side by side, not in a line one behind the other.
Floor, rainwater and access
A smooth concrete floor, with a slight slope towards the outside, can really be cleaned and disinfected. An earth floor keeps germs from one flock to the next. Plan a drainage channel around the house to carry away rainwater: a house whose base stands in water during the rainy season has permanently damp litter.
Place the house away from the road, from dwellings and above all from other farms, with a single entrance where you install a footbath (a disinfectant tray for shoes). A water reserve (water tower or raised tank) and a small feed store, closed and dry, complete the whole. The feed store must never be inside the birds’ house.
How many birds in my house?
This is the most important question, and the one most often answered wrongly. You do not calculate with day-old chicks, which fit in a corner, but with the birds at sale age. In an open-sided house, under the Ivorian climate, the cautious benchmarks are:
| Production | Birds per m² of floor (open-sided house) |
|---|---|
| White broiler, sold at around 35 to 45 days | 8 to 10 |
| Coloured chickens, sold at around 3 to 4 months | 6 to 8 |
| Floor-housed layers | 5 to 7 |
Example: a house 10 m by 30 m has 300 m² of usable floor. For white broilers, it holds 2,400 to 3,000 birds, not 5,000. In the hottest regions or during the hot season, take the bottom of the range. An overstocked house means heat, fighting, uneven birds and a feed conversion ratio that shoots up.
During brooding, the chicks live in a reduced part of the house, under the brooder, inside a brooder guard (a ring of cardboard or metal sheet 40 to 60 cm high) which is widened every day. We talk about it in lesson 4.
What if my house already exists?
Most entrepreneurs inherit a house that is already built. You do not demolish it: you correct it. In order of effectiveness: reduce the number of birds to the right density, lengthen the roof overhang or add curtains, clear the surroundings to let the wind in, open the ridge, concrete the floor. Each of these corrections shows on the next flock.
For the entrepreneur
- ›Before building, bring a technician to the site with a compass (or the phone app): orientation cannot be corrected afterwards.
- ›Size with the birds at sale: 300 m² of white broilers = 2,400 to 3,000 birds, no more.
- ›Budget for the concrete floor and the water reserve as parts of the house, not as options.
For the technician
- ›Work the curtains according to the time of day and the weather: closed at night during brooding, open in the hot hours, half-way up in driving rain.
- ›Check the wire mesh (holes, rodents) and the drainage channel every week.
- ›Measure the floor area that is really usable (excluding the feed area and walkway) before announcing a capacity.
The 3 questions to ask your technician this week
- Which way is our house built, and does the sun come in through the sides in the afternoon?
- At sale age, how many birds per m² will we really have?
- Who lowers and raises the curtains, at what times, and what is written on the record sheet?
Key points
- •House along an east–west axis, long sides facing north and south, roof overhang of at least 1 m.
- •Maximum width 10 to 12 m so that the wind passes through; clear space all around.
- •Low wall + fine mesh + roll-up curtains: ventilation is managed several times a day.
- •Density calculated at sale: 8 to 10 white broilers per m², 6 to 8 coloured chickens, 5 to 7 layers.
- •Concrete floor, drainage channel, footbath, separate feed store.